Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

 

25th Meeting, May 5, 2004 – Approved September 8, 2004

 

Present: R. Cerrato (chair), A. Feldman, M. Barnhart, A. Phillips, C. Green-Forde, C.

Marrone, A. Hasloecher, T. Weinacht, J. Lochhead, T. Weinacht, S. Sternglanz, E.

Kaplan (secretary), E. Lindquist (observer)

 

I Committee Business

Champagne in hand, the Committee thankfully toasted the conclusion of a busy and productive academic year.

 

The minutes of April 28th were approved

 

Annual Report

The draft of the annual report to the Arts and Sciences Senate was discussed. Barnhart had submitted additional language to the report, in part stating that “The Committee regards as top priority the unusual and thus far entirely unsatisfactory procedures that have arisen as a result of SUNY-GER curriculum issues…. The current situation, in the Committee’s view, is unacceptable and is in urgent need of review.”  The Committee heartily endorsed including strong language about its experiences with SUNY-GER in the annual report. Kaplan will add additional information from the last few meetings. Cerrato will then edit the report for submission to the Senate.

 

SUNY-GER

The Committee reviewed a note from Mark Aronoff to Elaine Kaplan, requesting clarification about what information the Committee needed from SUNY System Administration and questioning the submission of three courses for American History. Kaplan was asked to remind him that we were still waiting for responses for many courses that were submitted on November 6, 2003 as well as a response to our American History proposal that was submitted in December. The delay has already resulted in access issues for students, confusion for academic advisors and students, and may jeopardize our publication of an accurate and timely 2005-2007 Undergraduate Bulletin.

 

In response to Aronoff’s question about whether the title of the proposed course ECO 316

U.S. Class Structure and its Implications was appropriate for the SUNY-GER American History requirement, the Committee again reviewed the new course proposal that had been submitted by the Economics Department. The Committee believes that the course has significant historical content and should qualify for American History status, but will propose a less controversial title-- The History of U.S. Class Structure and its Economic Implications—to the department.

 

College of Business

Information has been disseminated from the CEAS Dean’s Office and the Registrar’s Office at stating that the curriculum and scheduling matters for the College of Business have been transferred from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to the College of Arts and Sciences.  (Note: It was subsequently confirmed that governance functions for the College of

Business; e.g. Senate representation, curriculum, academic standing, academic judiciary,

promotion and tenure, will become part of the portfolio of Arts and Sciences Senate, but the administrative functions; e.g. scheduling, will be handled within the new College of Business.)

 

II Routine Administrative Matters

The Philosophy Department would like the proposed 101 number for its new course Historical Introduction to Western Philosophy instead of PHI 112 as suggested by the Committee.

 

III Old Business

 

Specializations:

In light of the new guidelines for specializations that were approved earlier in the semester, the Committee reviewed the request for an MTD specialization in social sciences. While we felt that this idea was a sound one, there was not enough information to act on this as a proposal. Kaplan will write to Robert Hoberman with the request that he submit this as a formal proposal to the Committee.

 

New Course Proposals from Asian and Asian American Studies:

The Committee approved the new courses AAS 110-G Appreciating Indian Music and AAS 327 Great Epics of India: Ramayana and Mahabharata. Kaplan was asked to let the department know that there was still some concern about the level of the course.  The proposed course AAS 330 Language and Society in South Asia was approved in principle. When the topic of LIN 355 Language and Life in a Selected Area of the World is appropriate, the department would like to combine (PS terminology for crosslist) AAS 330 with LIN 355.  In order to do so, the DEC categories and prerequisites for AAS 330 and LIN 355 must be identical. Kaplan will work with AAS and with LIN to resolve the issue of prerequisites and DEC. Once this issue is resolved, the course can be approved.

 

Course Renumbering for Korean Studies and Japanese Studies Courses:

Courses in India Studies and in Chinese Studies were incorporated within the AAS designator last fall. Now the department is ready for the next step of its course numbering project and has requested the renumbering of many Korean Studies and Japanese Studies courses.

 

The renumbering system was approved and the changes to the courses and designators will become effective in the Spring 05 semester.

 

 

Arts and Sciences Senate

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Academic Year 2003-2004

24th   Meeting, April 28, 2004—Approved on May 5, 2004

 

Present:    J. Lochhead (chair), E. Kaplan (secretary),   M. Barnhart, C. Green-Forde,  T. Weinacht,  M. Read, C. Marrone, A. Phillips, A. Feldman, S. Sternglanz, A Hasloecher, E. Lindquist (observer)

 

I  Committee Business

 

The minutes of April 21, 2004 were approved.

 

Kaplan distributed copies of the draft of the 2003-2004 Annual Report for Committee review and discussion at next week’s meeting.  The final actions of the committee will be added to the report after the last meeting.  It will then be forwarded to the Senate office.

 

SUNY-GER:

 

Kaplan reported that, in a meeting earlier that day, Mark Aronoff had told Dean Staros that he would call Patricia Pietrapaolo to remind her that the campus was still waiting for approval of approximately 100 courses submitted for the SUNY-GER requirement and that we had also not heard anything about our proposal for the SUNY-GER American History category. 

 

It was suggested that the annual report state that we are concerned with the lengthy response time from SUNY System Administration.  The process of submitting information to SUNY must be expedient and transparent.  The report should also remind the Senate that we agreed to do this as a one year experiment and that the one year ends in November.

 

II Routine Administrative Matters:

 

Biology:

 

Changes to the prerequisites for BIO 311 Techniques in Molecular and Cellular Biology were approved.  The prerequisites were changed from:

 

CHE 132 or 142; BIO 202 and 203; MAT 125 or higher or AMS 151; permission of instructor

 

To:

 

CHE 132 or 142; BIO 202; MAT 125 or higher or AMS 151.

 

III Old Business

 

New course proposals from Asian and Asian American Studies

 

AAS 110-G Appreciating Indian Music

 

The Department agreed that the course should be offered as a 100 level DEC G course.  The Committee suggested further grammatical editing of the course description.  The Committee also requested a new syllabus for the course as it will be taught on the 100 level.  Kaplan will work on this and send it to Professor Sridhar for his review.

 

 

AAS 326-G Indian Mythology

 

The Department agreed to the Committee’s suggestions for prerequisites and shortened course description.  The course was approved.

 

AAS 327-G Great Epics of India

 

Correspondence received from Professor Sridhar stated that the grading scheme for the course would consist of a midterm exam (25% of the grade); a final exam (50% of the grade) and a term paper (25% of the grade).  But the revised syllabus submitted by the instructor did not agree with this scheme.  In addition, the course syllabus still included comparison with Homeric epics, which the Department had agreed to eliminate.

 

Kaplan will correspond again with Professor Sridhar.

 

AAS 330-F Language and Society in South Asia

 

Since this course is upper-division, the Committee wants to see mandatory prerequisites.  It was suggested that the proposed advisory prerequisite of AAS 201 or LIN 101 be mandatory.  If the course will eventually be crosslisted with a course in the Linguistics Department, the prerequisites will need to be the identical for both designators.

 

Kaplan will correspond again with Professor Sridhar.

 

IV  New Business

 

New course proposal PHI 101 Historical Introduction to Western Philosophy

 

The Committee was pleased with this new proposal.  Two small suggestions were made.  For consistency, the course number should be 112, since Introduction to Eastern Philosophy is PHI 111.  Also for consistency, “Historical” could be removed from the title so that PHI 111 would be Introduction to Eastern Philosophy and PHI 112 would be Introduction to Western Philosophy.

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Arts and Sciences Senate

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Academic Year 2003-2004

23rd   Meeting, April 21, 2004—Approved 4/28/04

 

Present:    R. Cerrato (chair), M. Barnhart, E. Kaplan (secretary), C. Green-Forde, T. Weinacht, J. Lochhead, M. Read, C. Marrone, A. Phillips. E. Lindquist (observer)

 

I  Committee Business

 

The minutes of April 14, 2004 were approved.

 

SUNY-GER:

 

Kaplan reported that she had revised the Course Addition Reporting Template forms for five of the special topics courses that had been sent to ACGE by Patricia Pietrapaolo in the SUNY Provost’s office.  In addition to including learning outcomes within the course descriptions, she provided course descriptions for sample topics offered in the past few semesters or planned topics for the upcoming semesters.  The forms have been submitted electronically to Mark Aronoff for transmittal to ACGE.

 

The Committee would like to review the status of the approximately 200 course submissions to SUNY since November 2003.  Kaplan will prepare a report for review at the Committee’s next meeting.

 

II Routine Administrative Matters:

 

Sociology:

 

Request from instructor and department to add “permission of instructor” to SOC 268 Theory and Practice in Student Leadership.  The course is specifically designed for students who are interested in serving in campus leadership positions.  The Committee agreed, provided that the course description is emended to include a statement that informs students about the nature of the course.

 

Social Studies Education:

 

The course SSE 487 Independent Research in Social Studies Education was created.

 

III Old Business:

 

New course proposals from Asian and Asian American Studies:

 

The four new course proposals-- Appreciating Indian Music, Indian Mythology, Great Epics of India, and Language and Society in South Asia-- were discussed.    Kaplan had edited the course descriptions for three of the courses and Professor Sridhar had edited the course description for the fourth.   There were a number of internal inconsistencies in each of the proposals and there were a number of questions about appropriate proposed course levels, course prerequisites, course requirements and grading schemes.

 

Kaplan will write to the department with a list of the questions and inconsistencies.  Once the issues are resolved, the Committee would like a revised new course proposal form for each course. 

 

 

Arts and Sciences Senate

Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

Academic Year 2003-2004

22nd   Meeting, April 14, 2004—Approved April 21, 2004

 

Present:    R. Cerrato (chair), S. Sternglanz, M. Barnhart, E. Kaplan (secretary), C. Green-Forde, A. Feldman, T. Weinacht, J. Lochhead, M. Read, C. Marrone, A. Phillips

 

I  Committee Business

 

The minutes of March 24th were approved.

 

II Routine Administrative Matters

 

Physics:

 

Change in prerequisites for PHY 452 Lasers from:

PHY 308 or ESG 333, PHY 300; both with grades of C or higher

 

To:

 

C or higher in PHY 251 and PHY 300

 

III Old Business

 

SUNY General Education Requirement

 

In an e-mail to Cerrato and Kaplan, Norman Goodman, who is a member of the SUNY Advisory Council on General Education, stated that several topics courses submitted by the campus for SUNY-GER approval had been sent by the SUNY Provost’s office to ACGE because the SUNY provost’s office did not believe that there was adequate information about how these courses would meet the relevant learning objectives of the proposed SUNY-GER categories.

 

Kaplan reworked the “Course Addition Reporting Template” forms for the courses in question (AAS 211, AAS 212, AAS 391, AAS 392, and RLS 390) and the committee discussed these.  It was thought that, for some of the courses, it would be helpful to use language that is more similar to the language used in the “Guidelines for the Approval of State University General Education Requirement Courses” document.  Kaplan will work on the forms again and will then send them to Mark Aronoff.

 

Restoration of DEC K

 

The Undergraduate Council and the University Senate Executive Committee both approved the restoration of DEC Category K.   Kaplan was asked to send the final list of the disposition of the courses that were moved from other DEC categories into DEC K.  The list is attached to these minutes.

 

Kaplan had been directed to make sure that the courses offered for Fall 04 that fall into the restored DEC K category are correctly designated in the official class schedule.   This was done; however a glitch in the SOLAR search messaging system has occurred. Students who have registered for these courses for spring 04 or summer 04 are getting erroneous messages.  This is a significant problem that will be immediately brought to the attention of the Registrar’s office and DoIT.

 

IV New Business

 

Freshman orientation courses

 

SBU 101 Introduction to Stony Brook is the one-credit S/U graded course that freshmen and transfer students are strongly encouraged to take during their first semester at the university.  With the advent of the Undergraduate College system, the course has been undergoing significant revision for fall 04.   The intent is to propose that the courses, which will now have six different designators for the six different colleges, be mandatory for all incoming freshmen.

 

If the course is mandatory, will students who receive a U grade be required to take it again the following year?  If so, these students will no longer be connected to the colleges, so how will this work?  Is it appropriate to require a course that is planned to be taught by new student affairs professionals, with little or no faculty input?   If so, will there be enough student affairs professionals to teach the 130 necessary sections?  Since the course is an academic requirement for CEAS students as well as CAS and MSRC students, then surely both the CEAS CTPC and the A and S Undergraduate Curriculum Committee must review the proposal.

 

The proposal is still in progress and will be brought back to the Undergraduate Council.  It is expected that the Committee will be receiving this proposal later in the spring semester.

 

New course proposals from Asian and Asian American Studies.

 

The Committee discussed the proposal for the proposed new course Appreciating Indian Music.  This course had been taught a few times as MUS 311-J Topics in Non Western Music.  The department has now plans to offer the course regularly and has suggested a 200 level number and Category D designation.

 

Members stated that the course seemed too focused to qualify for DEC-D credit.  Some compared it to MUS 105-G and MUS 106-G, which study the music of different world regions.  The group settled on the DEC-G designation as the best choice for the course.

 

Our member from the music department strongly believes that students should have some prior training in music before they study ragas.  The current upper-division status of the course makes sense and the current prerequisites (MUS 101, 105, 106, 119 or 130) are appropriate. 

 

The Committee suggested that the AAS department contact the music department to ask if the course could be crosslisted with a music course.    Since the music department already offers a series of popular non-major DEC courses, this is a logical step.    

 

Kaplan will write to Professor Sridhar with these comments and suggestions. If   Professor Sharma, the instructor of the proposed course is agreeable, Professor Sridhar should send her CV to the music department for their review.

 

             

 

           

K courses in old bulletins

03-05 bulletin

 Disposition 4/04

 

 

 

AFH/EGL 249 African-American Lit in 19th & 20th C

DEC G

moved back  to K

 

 

 

AFH/PHI 379 Philosophy of Race

DEC G

moved back to K

 

 

 

AFS 300 Blacks in the City

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

AFS 310 American Attitudes toward Race

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

AFS 360 African-American Social Commentary

DEC F

moved back  to K

 

 

 

EGL 226 20th Century American Lit

DEC G

leave in G

 

 

 

EGL 369 Topics in Ethnic Studies

DEC G

leave in G

 

 

 

HIS/WST 374 Hist. Perspectives on Gender Orienta.

DEC F

leave in F until course is revised

 

 

 

HIS 361 American History/American Film

DEC F

moved back  to K

 

 

 

HIS 362 Making Peace with the Sixties

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

HUI/EGL  333 The Italian-American Experience in Lit

DEC G

moved back to K

 

 

 

HUI/WST 237 Images of Italian-American Women

DEC G

moved back to K

 

 

 

HUI 338 Images of Italian-Americans in Film

DEC G

moved back  to K

 

 

 

LIN/AAS 250 Lang and Cultures of Asian Americans

DEC F

moved back  to K

 

 

 

LIN 307 Sociolinguistics

DEC F

moved back  to K

 

 

 

MUS 310 Music and Culture in the 1960's

DEC G

moved back  to K

 

 

 

PHI 310 American Philosophy

DEC G

moved back to K

 

 

 

POL/WST 330 Gender Issues in the Law

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

POL/WST 347 Women and Politics

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

SOC/WST 247 Sociology of Gender

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

SOC 310 Ethnic Relations

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

SOC 323 Urban Society

DEC F

moved back  to K

 

 

 

SOC/WST 371 Gender and Work

DEC F

moved back to K

 

 

 

SSI 345 Parental Roles in a Pluralistic Society

DEC F

moved back to K (now CFS 345)